Jim's Place

Hello From Guatemala

Hi everyone. I'm sitting in the Guatemala airport waiting for my flight home to El Paso. It's been a busy, but enjoyable (for the most part) week. Although this is my fourth trip to Guatemala, I did and saw things I had never done or seen before.

The main purpose for my trip this year was to produce a "promotional" video for Nancy, the missionary, to use to help her attract some corporate support for her ministry.

The most interesting was spending a day AND night with a family in one of the mountain villages. Having seen how they live on previous trips I thought I had a fairly good idea of it, but until you do it (even for a day) you get a real appreciation for the poverty and hardship (although they never seem to complain). The family (9 of them) and me, Cindy and Jeanne all slept in the same 1-room mud house. Of course, like many of the mountain villages, there was no running water and no electricity. Maybe after I get home, I will post some pictures of this experience.

Another first was visiting the country of Honduras. The main reason for that trip was to see and film an agricultural training center and the work they are doing to help the people of Honduras and Guatemala. While there, I met Mary, a missionary with the IMB, who works with the project.

Two other areas that I needed to film were water projects and reforestation. For this, I had to take two different motorcycle trips (as a passenger) way up in the mountains to see the work and progress in these areas. That was another unique experience. For those of you who have been on one of trips to Guatemala and have taken a pickup truck up to one of the villages, you know how rough the roads are. If you think it is rough in the back of the truck, try the back of a motorcycle.

The weather this time of year in Guatemala was something else different. Teams usually go to support Nancy during the dry season so that they do not lose valuable time due to the weather. But, it is now the rainy season and I did see quite a bit of rain.

The only bad part of the trip is that I finally got one of those dreaded stomach viruses and was terribly sick for a day. At least it was a day when I had no travel away from the ministry center planned. It was Embrace day, so all my filming was of the Embrace program and a little at the medical clinic at the center.

Well, I need to get ready to board the plane. As much as I enjoyed this trip, as always, it will be great to get home and sleep in my own bed.

posted by Jim @ 11:45 AM